


Gratitude

by Becky_Blue_Eyes



Series: Life in 16 Flavors Universe [2]
Category: Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-01
Updated: 2013-03-01
Packaged: 2017-12-04 00:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,298
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/704387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Becky_Blue_Eyes/pseuds/Becky_Blue_Eyes
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ralph may have saved Sugar Rush and Vanellope from destruction, but the sudden gratitude from another video game character brings up questions. Takes place before, during and after Life in 16 Flavors.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Wreck-It Ralph

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story takes place before, during and after the events of mt previous story, Life in 16 Flavors. So if my writing is new to you, I highly recommend that you check out that story first. Otherwise welcome back to this universe, and I hope you enjoy :D

**Present Time**

* * *

Wreck-It Ralph was unaccustomed to praise from others.

It probably had to do with 30 years spent as a feared bad guy suddenly upended by his heroics in Sugar Rush. The whole thing made the perfect story: a lonely bad guy meets with a miserable glitch, an evil plot by a monster long thought dead came into light, and the two risk their lives to save the glitch's game. The princess revelation was icing on the cake.

Still, he mused as he made a trek through GCS towards Sugar Rush, it was all pretty weird. Once the story broke out everyone was wanting to be his friend, apologizing for the years of standoffish behavior, and that paired with the Nicelanders being, well,  _nice_  for once, made him feel really good inside, like after eating one of Mary's pies. This particular night was only a day after Turbo was destroyed once and for all, so he figured all the attention would die off after a few weeks. He was just happy to have helped his friend.

Quick footsteps headed in his direction, and he turned to see two blurs materialize in front of him. "Oh hey Sonic! And...erm, Sonic!"

He didn't know the two heroes very well, mainly seeing the older and newest Sonic through his public safety messages that played periodically. The younger and veteran Sonic rarely ventured outside his game; Ralph hadn't seen him since Sonic the Fighters was plugged in and gave that Sonic a new home.

The older Sonic, or Modern Sonic to be more specific, grinned at Ralph. "Sorry to bother you, but the lil' guy just wanted to say something real quick."

Ralph had to bite down a snort; "Classic" Sonic was mute. But the little hero grinned and waved at the much larger villain, before hugging him around the middle. Ralph was too shocked to do much except awkwardly pat the hedgehog on a thin shoulder. C. Sonic pulled back and saluted him once more, before nodding at his larger counterpart and bailing towards his own game, careful not to disturb a passing turtle. "What..."

"Yeah, he's not the most outgoing thing but he's a sweetheart." M. Sonic shrugged before extending a gloved hand. "Anyways, I just wanted to thank you."

Ralph shook his hand, still reeling from the hug. "W-What are you thanking me for?"

A sigh left the green-eyed speed demon, and he turned towards Sonic the Fighter's port. "Between losing his first game and still dealing with two sets of game data being programmed into him, he hasn't been doing so well. But after you saved Sugar Rush, well let's just say you gave him a lot of hope for a lot of reasons." M. Sonic checked his wrist as if there was a watch there, then shrugged. "I gotta be heading back—I promised to help Tails with his turning. Still weird being in a car, but what can you do." He flashed Ralph a grin. "But if you ever want to go out for a root beer or just wanna talk, hit me up. I owe ya one."

Ralph waved bye as M. Sonic sped off for his own game, blinking slowly. Sitting down on a bench, he stared at the port for TRON, mind drifting off back decades.

Sega Sonic Arcade used to be there, a rare deal that Mr. Litwak had made with a fellow arcade owner in exchange for his busted Asteroids console. C. Sonic had come then and his game was a pretty decent hit with his game franchise's fans, other gamers drawn in by the unusual trackball control. But his friends Mighty and Ray had been the adventurous types—Ralph once had to chase them out of his game after they were nearly pecked to death by a swarm of birds. But that hadn't stopped them from exploring a shoot 'em up, and one day they didn't come back.

Before then no one had died outside of their games, and it was a lesson paid very dearly. Sega Sonic Arcade was unplugged and C. Sonic joined the other homeless characters who lost their homes in the great Arcade Crash back in the 80s. But then Mr. Litwak came in with an even rarer game, Sonic the Fighters, and C. Sonic went barreling in to his new home.

Of course there had already been a Sonic programmed for that game, so the two had merged, keeping the old memories but adding the new physics. Ralph couldn't imagine how wonky that must be, dealing with two lives fused into one; his game was based off of Fix-It Felix, but at least that game had entirely different characters, keeping him safe from dual programming.

M. Sonic had come with Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, making instant friends with his classic counterpart, and was the new spokesman for telling characters to stay safe or doom their games with their deaths. Ralph now knew that M. Sonic was a pretty ok guy and C. Sonic wouldn't be out of place in Sugar Rush, and made a note to take the elder up on his offer for a root beer.

Stretching, he ambled off towards Sugar Rush, his excitement to see Vanellope after her first day of racing pushing the dual Sonics out of his mind.

* * *

**16 Years Ago**

* * *

_He didn't know where he was, only that it was dark and his head still hurt from memories that he would rather forget. He slid his hands across the ground, finding a seam for a trapdoor. Pulling the door upwards, he was blinded by a stark white tunnel, falling in and taking that troublesome golden cartridge with him._

_He landed with a thud next to a giant SEGA Genesis controller, his ears ringing from the fall._

_'Oh Sonic, they must've nerfed your footing when they gave you all that speed!'_

_Biting his lip, he mentally shoved away Mighty's voice. He was gone, Ray was gone, and now he had a new home with new friends and they didn't need to know that he was one button mash away from breaking down in tears._

_Sniffling, he picked up the cartridge. Every game must have one, since back in the **(no, don't think about that place, it's gone forever and there's nothing that crying will do about it** )...other game he had found one too. It was one of those Game Genies, used when someone fell through the wall and needed to go into debug to get out or something. He had found it when running through the different arenas of the game, in a dark sliver that he hadn't noticed before. Then he had fallen through the crack, weird music had played and then he was in that dark room and now here._

_His ears twitched in pain as he willed his headache to lessen. It had been present ever since...well, Q-Bert said it was the stress of being homeless. Sometimes he wish he could talk so he could've thanked Q-Bert and his friends in their own language, but he was stuck pantomiming his thanks for all they had taken of him._

_Eventually the buzz died away, and he looked at the words flashing across the Game Genie. A thought took seed in his mind, and he turned towards the Genesis controller. Debug could do anything in a game—it could beat the story mode instantly, it could give him all the powers of the programming, and maybe it could take his memories away._


	2. Modern Sonic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which the crash of Sugar Rush makes headlines in the arcade, Ralph begins a spiral descent, and the Sonics use their experience of a previous incident to respond to the current one.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Right now 'Present Day' is the aftermath of Sugar Rush's reset in Life in 16 Flavors, so it's not a very happy chapter. A new character is also appearing here, one who will be very important in my stories. I hope you enjoy :D

**Present Day**

* * *

M. Sonic wasn't very good with emotional stuff.

Sure, everything on the rage side of the yelling spectrum was easy for him to turn back around into happiness (or just flat out grumpiness, in the case of Knuckles), but sadness was a mystery to him. Why sulk and cry when you had your whole day ahead of you?

Of course, he thought as he watched Fix-It Felix and that Sergeant from Hero's Duty try and console a silently weeping Ralph, he had never lost a friend before.

Earlier that day he was just hanging out in GCS, enjoying his game's day off (the thing had fizzled out when some jerk had spilled his soda, but everyone was accounted for and Litwak said the day off would be good for their circuits, so no unplugging there) and visiting some of the old guys that didn't have a home, when Frogger came jumping in. Frogger wasn't the most eloquent of speakers—years of being hit by cars can do that to a guy—but his message was painfully clear: Something had gone way past screwed up in Sugar Rush, home of Ralph's very best friend.

Being the fastest thing on two legs and a mouth to match, M. Sonic spread the news to every game lined up in the Station; it was a depressingly simple thing to just whisper over the din of a fight or a shoot out, 'Sugar Rush has a virus', and watch the news spread in seconds. The last game he had visited was Fix-It Felix, Jr., and boy did he drag his feet going into that game. Ralph was a new buddy, a guy who made his lil' Sonic smile after years of frustration, and he hated to be the messenger who shot the big guy in the gut.

But he slipped into their opening animation and sucked in a breath. Blurting out 'Sugar Rush has crashed' was like ripping a Band-Aid off, real quick and quiet, but Ralph had done stiffer than the rubber on his shoes, and M. Sonic winced as one of those Nicelanders had to drop a flower pot or something to snap the guy back into his game. M. Sonic had bailed then, back to GSC and in front of the DDR port with the rest of his cast members who were waiting for the arcade to close. This wasn't a show to miss, Eggman had stated, and he couldn't had been more correct.

Watching little Vanellope, hardly any bigger than Tails or Amy, race off against a real mess of a virus in a wasteland fit for one of those zombie apocalypse games was bad. Watching Ralph flip his lid and break down was worse. And when Sugar Rush reset itself, Ralph running out of DDR as quickly as any super speeding hedgehog, was murder; M. Sonic saw lil' Sonic shake his head in the din of all the other characters cheering, and M. Sonic's gut froze.

C. Sonic had always dabbled in altering a game's code, having pointed out to his older counterpart the Action Replay hidden in Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, so he had recognized what an internal factory reset caused by a Game Genie looked like.

So now the villains at Eggman's support group were heaving Ralph back to his own game, the Nicelanders actually helping out for once and clearing the way back, and M. Sonic turned to look as his lil' Sonic. He was paler than usual, his light blue turned ashy gray, and he ran off back to Sonic the Fighters, probably hiding back tears. M. Sonic sighed—the kid was just as bad with emotional stuff due to his overly large empathy—and glared at the port leading to Sugar Rush.

According to Ralph, Vanellope hadn't recognized him and threw him out. M. Sonic had seen how devoted he was to that kid, and figured it was worse than Vanellope dying as herself; now she was this stranger, a faker that didn't have the courtesy of acknowledging the Vanellope that had been lost in the reboot. M. Sonic wondered if that was what C. Sonic felt every day, knowing that his fellow fighters in his game didn't recognize him as the brat in Sega Sonic Arcade.

A public service announcement for staying safe outside of one's game started playing, and he flinched. No, he hadn't lost a friend in his two years at the arcade, he just made new ones. He wasn't Ralph, who had seen games go in 30 years of change and had just suffered the biggest change of all. And he wasn't C. Sonic, the first Sonic, whose two best friends had gotten themselves killed and then lost his home and his identity. He didn't have to deal with friends in his game that he did love but who loved him for one half of his programming...and he didn't have to deal with having one true friend in his game that was trapped in a hell that Vanellope had just escaped before being shot back to start with no memory of her race.

No, M. Sonic wasn't very good with emotional stuff at all, and he was very lucky to have that problem. But as he ran back to his own game before the arcade opened, wondered what he could do to fix that problem.

* * *

**16 Years Ago**

* * *

_He was floating freely in the dark well that the Genesis controller had opened up into, and he was blinded by the code blinking around him. Starting off with a trackball control had done wonders for his equilibrium, so he wasted no time diving off towards what he hoped was the memory bank. He didn't want these painful memories of friends he couldn't bury and a home he couldn't visit, and he was going to do something about it._

_Unfortunately, he was lost amongst stage level data, the cords trying to tangle up in his laces. But then he saw a dark flicker, much like the one that had sucked him into the game's central programming. He swam down towards that flicker, and saw a dangling cord leading to nowhere. Out in the darkness he could make out two code boxes floating by themselves, sparks glitching out of their empty pointer ports. Floating closer, he saw that somebody named Honey never got to see the light of their game **(just like Mighty and Ray, they're never going to play ever again because they're long gone, their code boxes aren't connected with anything anymore)**  and he slammed his Game Genie into her box, painful tears floating away in drops._

_The Game Genie knew what it was doing, more so than Sonic, and the box flooded with life, the golden cartridge indicating that a cheat program had worked and Honey the Cat could now be selected. Sonic cocked his head, and a soft gasp from behind had him spinning around._

_She was floating there, her black pigtails flickering in and out of existence, and one of her eyes was locked away from them towards a camera that wasn't there. But then she smiled brighter than any ring or Chaos Emerald, and for once the pain was gone. "H-Hello there..."_

_Chaos, he wished he could talk; everyone else could but him in both games, and it wasn't fair to keep someone like her hanging by a thread of cheat code. So he grabbed onto her hand, feeling her pixels glitch under the fabric of his glove, and wished that she could be as stable as his emotions weren't. She laughed and looked upwards at the exit, pulling him up away from the Game Genie. For a moment he struggled **(they were still there, laughing and loving and depilexating somewhere far away)**  but she was older and built for fighting, so he watched the golden glimmer fade away into the black._

_"It's going to be ok, we're gonna go out together and be the very best of friends."_

_'It's gonna be ok guys, we're gonna go out and be the best friends anyone did ever see.'_

_He believed in both._


	3. Classic Sonic

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Modern Sonic takes up the mantle of brother for the third time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's the next chapter! Longer than usual (this story will be the shortest one in my series, I promise) as requested, and we get a lot of depressed Ralph today. Hopefully you enjoy!

**Present Day**

* * *

C. Sonic was having a good day.

His game had gotten more traffic than usual, and that was always something to cheer about in this day and age, Fang and Knuckles had finally fought out their argument over who had the highest number of KOs, Dr. Robotnik had given him pointers on how to counter aerial attacks, and Amy had made the whole crew her famous rosewater Turkish delight. In the realm of Sonic the Fighters, everything was going great.

And as he watched Vanellope spin in circles, Ralph watching with happiness that he had lacked for nearly three months, C. Sonic felt that this was even better.

The three months between Sugar Rush being reset and Vanellope's gambit with the memory banks paying off had been a very trying time. Ralph was despondent, barely working up enough energy to work, and it took Felix and that blonde woman he was totally dating to keep him from having a breakdown. C. Sonic knew what it was like to be on the verge of utter despair, memories of friends gone making the living day a wreck.

By some act of Chaos, M. Sonic had shaped up to be a really good friend to Ralph, the speed demon currently helping Felix tease Ralph for being one of little faith. That didn't surprise C. Sonic—his big bro is amazing no matter what Nack or Bean say—but in the beginning it was tough.

* * *

**Night 3**

He was slumped outside of Sugar Rush again, just like last night and the night before. Felix was hovering like a mother hen, wanting to drag Ralph back to their game but having no means. Q*Bert and his gang were watching, Kano and Cyrill were loitering a few benches away, and one of the Angel Kids was wringing his hands as Ralph teetered between frustrated yelling and depressed lifelessness. But no one was doing anything, and M. Sonic was done with being a bystander.

"Come on," he gripped Ralph's shoulder and pushed the villain up a bit with his powerful legs, "a drink at Tapper's will do you some good. Hydration' key to running you know, that I know for sure." He rambled on, motioning for Kano to help hoist Ralph to his feet. "Why, once my lil' bro Tails went a whole day without anything to drink. He's a brilliant kid, I love him to bits, but if he knows we have plans to run for once instead of driving around, he should've known to hydrate." It was harder than it looked to drag a most unwilling building wrecker down a few ports to Tapper's, even with Kano picking up a good share of the weight. "Kid passed out halfway around his own circuit, and then Amy showed up. Boy was she mad, you'd figure the two were dating—and don't be starting rumors, Kano! Eggman told me you were the one who spread that Bowser was actually Pauline in disguise!"

"Hah! That was a good one!" Kano plopped Ralph onto a stool in the bar, then gave M. Sonic a farewell salute. "Tell me if he gets better."

"Sure thing. Hey Tapper, you got any water? I don't think beer's what Ralph needs." M. Sonic thumped Ralph on the back, watching how his expression didn't even flicker. It was worse than C. Sonic had been since he had arrived, probably as bad when the lil' guy's game first broke and the Honey fiasco, and the whole thing was worse than being outraced by Eggman.

"Here you go." Tapper wiped down the bar, large eyes fixed on Ralph, who didn't even touch the glass of water. "Funny seeing you with him; didn't know the two of you were friends."

"Well, we are now I guess." M. Sonic sighed and ordered his own root beer. It was going to be a long night.

* * *

**Night 32**

"Fancy seeing you here again, Ralph. Didn't take you for one of the architect types, but I guess these dirty stairs have a nice urban class to them."

M. Sonic retied one of his shoes, leaning against Ralph's hulking shoulder. "Granted, the stairs haven't changed in the month you've sat outside them, but what do I know? I'm not the type to stick around for too long, so to each his own."

Nothing, not even a change in breath. "Felix says he's coming back with some pie, does apple sound good? I don't like cherry, too much like those grapes Knux keeps guzzling down every half hour. Seriously, the man should go see Dr. Mario, I think he has a addiction."

M. Sonic stretched like a giant cat, resetting against Ralph. "That Felix sure does like that Sergeant lady, doesn't he? I always see him mooning over her, and she doesn't seem like the type to let guys drool over her high definition unless she likes him back. Which is neat, cuz she's like what? 7 feet tall? I'm a fan of height differences in couples, gives ol' 4 foot me some hope for finally winning over Chun-Li. She totally has the hots for me, just you wait." M. Sonic laughed to himself, gritting his teeth when Ralph sighed that sigh, the one that he's had ever since Vanellope's mind was wiped. "I hope they get together. Felix is a real good pal, just like Tails or lil' Sonic."

Still nothing. M. Sonic sighed and willed Felix to hurry up.

* * *

**Night 76**

"Hey Ralph, mind if I look over my rings next to ya? Thanks, you're too kind." M. Sonic counted out the rings he had brought with him, snorting. "You know, you almost axed me back when you were in that pod from Hero's Duty. Good thing I always got my rings, I even pass them out to the homeless guys just in case. Lil' Sonic got me into that, caring about what happens to guys without games..."

M. Sonic turned towards Ralph, who was cradling a little cookie medal. "Vanellope made that for you, didn't she?"

Ralph twitched, and M. Sonic wanted to run a victory lap. "I don't know her too well, she and her game mates never do leave their little candy land. But I know a bit about kids—she's 12, right? Almost Amy's age, before girls start getting all boy crazy? Or maybe that's just Amy, cuz the sweetheart from Angel Kids and Mee Mee from Super Monkey Ball aren't like that. Go figure. But anyway, she must really like you to go out of her way and make you a medal."

Ralph was shaking now, and M. Sonic wished he had kinder words to say. "I'm a practitioner of tough love Ralph, comes with the attitude. But don't think I'm not sorry for your lost friendship. I might not know personally that pain, but I know my lil' bro Sonic, and I know he still missed Mighty and Ray every day. But you know what Ralph?" The man in front of him tilted his broken face up towards the now standing hedgehog, hands curling around the medal. "If she could remember you, she wouldn't want this...this Chaos-driven depression that you're in. I know it hurts, and it's going to hurt for a very long time, but you can't let it break you!"

For a moment it wasn't a hero yelling at a villain mourning over a princess, but an older brother to a little brother, begging him to not let the darkness and grief take over. And for a moment Ralph registered that yes, Vanellope wouldn't have wanted him to fall into despair. But then he shut down again, curling around his medal, and M. Sonic was left to count rings, each one for a day that grief had wrecked Ralph.

* * *

**Night 88**

They were sitting in front of Sugar Rush, M. Sonic very quiet. He opened his mouth, hesitated, then began in a calm voice. "Sixteen years ago, right after lil' Sonic joined Sonic the Fighters, he fell into the code well. He had a Game Genie, and he was going to destroy the memories he had of Sega Sonic Arcade, because they were driving him crazy. Down there he found dummied out content, stuff that was cut out before it could be finished, and he brought to life a glitch named Honey the Cat."

He paused, then clenched his fists. "She was his first real friend because she understood what it was like to have broken programming, and he wanted to take her out of the dark space her level should've been and introduce her to the other fighters. But when they tried to leave the darkness, a barrier kept her back, even with the Game Genie's cheat activated. So every day he would visit her, every day for five years without fail. Only he knew her, because whenever he tried to tell his friends, they couldn't make the connection in their code and acted like she didn't exist. But it was ok, because they had each other."

Ralph slowly turned towards M. Sonic, whose voice started to shake. "But one day in the darkness, she bumped into her corrupted mirror image, and was frozen. And no matter what he did, no matter what cheat code he pumped into the Game Genie, she wouldn't come back to life. His friend was gone, but her body was still there, and that was worse than Mighty or Ray, who disappeared for good."

M. Sonic swallowed, sighing deeply, but his voice grew more and more unsteady. "For 11 years she was like that, and every day he would visit and beg her to come back. Every day all this sadness and hopelessness was destroying him, and it could all be fixed if she could come back. She never did." He paused, willing himself to calm down, and smiled. "Then one day, his big bro tells him a story that's swept the whole arcade. A bad guy got fed up with being alone, and teamed up with a glitch to make her a real racer in her game. He helped defeat an evil virus that had made the girl into a glitch, and though his help she wasn't a glitch anymore, but a princess and a president, and she could live for real."

M. Sonic stood up, crossing his arms. "So ever since that day, he's been trying to find a way to turn Honey into a real fighter. He's been happy for the first time in eleven years, and the bad guy in the story has his and his brother's gratitude. And even though it's been nearly three months since that story, he hasn't given up hope. Maybe you shouldn't either."

He sped off towards Sonic the Fighters, ignoring Ralph calling out for him to come back. At least he was talking now.

* * *

That had been two nights ago, right before Sugar Rush's story mode was beaten and the lock "Queen Candy" had put upon the memories broke upon Vanellope becoming Queen once again. And now they were happy, so very happy with all the candy racers exploring the other games for the first time without fear of being locked away.

Vanellope stopped and their gazes met, and she bounded towards him, her white goggles slipping off her face. "Hey, are you the guy that's been so nice to Ralph?"

C. Sonic shook his head; M. Sonic was the hero here. Vanellope paused, then giggled. "Oh, you're a voiceless character! Cool! Anyways, that guy must be the other blue spiny...thing. Hey, do you wanna come with us? We're going to have a party in Sugar Rush once all my racers come back, and any friend of a friend of Ralph's is a friend of mine!"

C. Sonic nodded, and raced after her, Vanellope babbling about how she had so much to catch up on, so many games to see. And she was so much like Honey that it hurt a little, but then the hurt went away and was replaced by hope. If this former glitch could become a queen, then maybe Honey could come out of her coma and be a real fighter.

Today was a day of hope and joy, a really good day, so all the other mess could wait for later.


	4. Honey the Cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which eleven years of pain are relieved and Ralph receives more gratitude than he understands.

**11 Years Ago**

* * *

Honey the Cat didn't mean for this to happen.

Stuck frozen in her opening battle pose, one eye to the wall and the other fixed on her hysterical friend...this was a mess. How was she supposed to know she had a mirror image here in this darkness? The Game Genie must've activated it when Sonic first brought her to life, for all the good that the pink skinned, blonde haired statue did. Her own hair had stopped glitching, although her black pigtails were gone, so she was static for once in her life. No sliding pixels, no wonky movements, just the stillness she had craved for the past 5 years.

What she would give to be a functioning glitch again.

Sonic was crying now, hiding his face in his gloved hands, and all she wanted to do was bundle him up and take him away from this glitching darkness, to where he belonged with the rest of the real fighters. But she couldn't, she couldn't keep her best friend of all existence from having a nervous breakdown and it was all her fault. She wanted to cry too, but she was no better than a boundary wall, cold and unyielding.

He turned away and started raging mutely at the black void where her level was supposed to be, his expression screaming about her and Mighty and Ray and how he just wanted to reset the entire arcade. Her cheerful level music glitched and dropped into a minor key, and he burst into more tears, falling to his knees and curling up into a blue ball.

_'I'm sorry so sorry Honey I can fix this I just need time please don't hate me I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm so sorry'_

* * *

Honey wished every day she could move again, or at least talk to her deteriorating friend, but she knew what her mother  _(she had a mother? Where was she?)_  said about wishes and horses, or something like that. He was in the habit of frantically petting what was left of her hair and writing down every Game Genie cheat that he knew, before turning away to cry for a moment, then starting the cycle all over again.

He needed more help than she did, because he was real and he was in real danger of snapping and throwing himself into a shoot 'em up with no return plans. She'd tell him this, but as it was she could hardly breathe.

She watched him go over a string of code he had copied from the cheat cartridge, crossing out ones that had failed to restore her. He "talked" nonsensically, going from his day at work to his favorite flavors of cake with no transition, and she wanted to cry at the madness.

The darkness bore down all around them, and her lungs burned with every too slow and too heavy breath she was forced to take.

* * *

She counted today as a victory, for at least he wasn't crying anymore. He was just lying by her side, arms folded casually behind his head, eyes staring up into nothingness. She liked his eyes when they weren't filled with tears or burning with hysterical rage; they were large and so sweet when he was happy, and sometimes she would catch herself daydreaming about them back when she could lay out on the ground and properly daydream.

But his eyes were empty now, like the darkness she was confined to, and she wanted the tears back.

Honey wanted to scream, she wanted to wail, she wanted and wanted but nothing ever happen the way she wanted and she was sick of  _wanting_. So she let go to her wants and just stood in the void, breathing in and out over and over without end.

* * *

He laid by her side. She stood. He asked the darkness to let her go. She stood.

* * *

He laid by her side. She stood. He asked the darkness to let her go. She stood.

* * *

She didn't want anything anymore, but sometimes Honey would catch herself wondering what it would be like to stop existing.

* * *

She wondered if he wanted to stop existing too.

* * *

But that wasn't true anymore. A new game from his franchise had been plugged in, and Sonic looked...happy for once. Honey forgot what happy looked like, so she wasn't too sure, but she thought that she liked the change.

* * *

Sonic brought the Other Sonic to Honey, and she watched his expression change to one of horror and fear. She wondered if she was terrible to look at, frozen like a block of boundary, but she couldn't find it in herself to really care. Her Sonic laid by her side. She stood. Her Sonic asked the darkness to let her go. She stood.

The Other Sonic sat by her other side. She stood. He asked for how long had she been frozen like this. She stood.

* * *

Honey watched the Other Sonic tell a grand story to her Sonic  _(and maybe to her, she thought that he didn't hate her, so maybe he liked her too?)_. A villain, like Dr. Robotnik but with large wrecking hands, had game jumped into somewhere called Sugar Rush, where he met a glitch. This glitch was like the Honey of 16 years ago, she could move and exist, but she was locked away from happiness. So the wrecking guy and the glitch teamed together to make the glitch a real racer, but were attacked by a virus and monsters from a different game. But despite the odds, the bad guy turned good guy destroyed the virus and the bugs, and the glitch was turned into a princess, and wasn't it just amazing?

Her Sonic was smiling, so wonderfully bright against the darkness, and he looked ready to run a thousand lifetimes of miles to hunt down the code that would fix Honey just like how Wreck-It Ralph had fixed Princess Vanellope.

And something shifted in her static block of existence, and Honey caught herself wanting to live again.

* * *

Something had happened to Vanellope, the Other Sonic reported to them. A virus had crashed Sugar Rush, and somebody inside the game rebooted the game to its factory settings, wiping out the friendship between Ralph and Vanellope.

Honey wished and wanted for that friendship to be restored with the same fervor that she wished and wanted to be real.

* * *

Her Sonic was cheerful again, going down towards the code well, and she knew that Vanellope had been restored.

She was so happy, and she wanted to laugh and cheer because now there was hope, hope for her and her Sonic and for everyone in the arcade.

* * *

Her Sonic was back again, but this time with new people.

A large man with giant hands was hovering next to a pretty little girl in a sleek white and mint suit, the Other Sonic speaking to a red headed girl in a kimono. The red head turned towards her, nodded, and her Sonic led that girl into the code well.

Honey didn't know what was going on, but she swore she could feel something in her code.

The pretty girl bounced up to her and introduced herself very cheerfully that she was Queen Vanellope of Sugar Rush but she was just Vanellope to friends like her. Ralph was the big guy, ignore him if does anything stupid because he's a useless diaper baby, and Choko and the little Sonic were going to fix her in time for the party she was throwing and Honey was invited!

Something flickered under her skin, and Honey felt...was it life? It was warm and burning, like a circuit being connected to the mainframe and  _oh!_ —

* * *

Down in the code well, Choko reconnected Honey and her level to the web of programming, C. Sonic manipulating the Game Genie to function as a medium between the two. Honey's code box flooded with light, and Choko opened the box to see the tangled bits of incomplete programming. The Game Genie was now filler strands of code, fixing Honey's eyes and allowing her to move fluently without shifting pixels or her model deforming into Amy's sprite. A little programming here, a functioning cutscene here, and now Honey was a secret character in Sonic the Fighters, her mirror image uncorrupted and its color changed into the standard black and white.

* * *

Honey stared around her, watching her level go through it's idle animations. Sunset Town was  _hers_ , the darkness gone forever, and now the other fighters in her game were piling in, their data finally registering her presence.

Then Amy was hugging her, and Tails was babbling about how much catching up they had to do, and Knuckles was yelling at Nack to be polite, and Dr. Robotnik was welcoming her into the roster. She turned towards her Sonic, who looked completely fulfilled and happy for the first time in the 16 years she had known him, and she cried tears of joy.

She broke away to squish a giggling Vanellope in a giant hug, then did the same to Ralph, who had the gall to ask her why, it was all Choko and the other guys' doing.

She laughed, shaking her head, before being pulled by Amy out of Sunset Town towards the exit of Sonic the Fighters and into the plug port she thought she would never see. She went through without a barrier keeping her in the dark, and she squeezed her Sonic's hand as Vanellope yelled at Choko to help round up their racers, the party was about to begin.

Even if Ralph didn't understand the magnitude of what he did for her, and between herself and the two Sonics she would make him understand, he would always have her gratitude.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay happy ending!
> 
> Honey the Cat is a real life unfinished character found inside Sonic the Fighters, and she was finished and put into the 2012 release of her game on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network. I had loved her character for years since it was really cool to know that there was a "glitch" inside a game from one of my favorite franchises, so of course I had to write her into my universe XD
> 
> And that's it for this little story, cuz now a huge arcade-wide saga is about to go down, starring all the games I can fit into it! I hope you enjoyed Gratitude, and see you in my next story! :D


End file.
